Buttercream Rainbow and Fondant Zebra Stripes

Karlene, is a lovely 11 year old (just turned) who is so charming. I met her two years ago. (I know her mom) She was looking at one of my cake photo albums when she said, “I love these cupcakes! They have the Pink Breast Cancer Ribbon on them and my mom has breast cancer.”
Not what you would expect from your average 9 year old.
Karlene, is 11 going on 40.You can actually hold an adult conversation with her. She sent me a photo of a cake, similar to this one, but she wanted rainbow zebra on her cake.This is what I came up with.
Her momma took a photo of Karlene and her cake and posted it to facebook.
Karlene was elated when she finally saw her cake.
Karlene’s mom had a rapid forming rare breast cancer. She is barely 30 and had a double mastectomy. She is one of the bravest, strongest women I know. She is okay for now. Her daughter has inherited her plucky spirit.

I feel like i stumbled across something new as I was working on this cake. I had my camera so I started click photos as I got along. I am sorry, but I did not take photos as I did the zebra stripes. If you don’t know how to do them, there are many tutorials on youtube for that. I hope you enjoy!

Just to give you and idea where we are headed, this is the top shot of a two tier buttercream rainbow with fondant zebra stripes…oh what fun!

Take your three colors and pipe them in the shape of pie slices, just to get the icing on the cake. (no worries, k?)

Now we are going to start getting a little pickier, but not too picky! Start smearing the buttercream, but try to keep it with in it’s own colored pie slice. (do not spin on the turn table!, just go from side to side with in each pie slice)

This is how it should look, notice she’s still a little rough looking. (kind of like me, first thing in the morning, before my coffee!) ;)

Now take a Viva paper towel and a fondant smoother and get that thing as smooth as you can, but again, you don’t need to be too picky, it’s going to be covered with zebra stripes, but keep it as clean as you can.

Adhere your zebra strips as you would on any other cake. (I did not need to wet my, they stuck to the buttercream)

Finish your design as you see fit. Have fun with it! See if you can change it to make it your own!
This is how mine turned out: